“We must never become too busy sawing to take time to sharpen the saw.”
—Dr. Stephen R. Covey
‘Sharpening the Saw’ means preserving and enhancing the greatest business asset you have—you! It means having a balanced program for self-renewal and reflection so that you can bring focus and creativity to your business. And if there ever was a time to stay sharp— its now.
For many business owners the pandemic and the shelter-in-place orders are creating unwanted ‘downtime’. So why not use it to sharpen the saw? You might consider:
Podcasts. All you need to do is Google ‘best business podcast’ and you will be presented with hundreds to choose from, on every topic imaginable.
The podcasts I find myself going back to listen to time and again are:
Entrepreneurs on Fire by John Lee Dumas
Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield
The Introvert Entrepreneur by Beth Buelow
The $100MBA by Omar Zenhom
BizChix by Natalie Eckdahl
Blogs. Just like with podcasts, all you need to do is Google ‘ best business blogs’ and you will be presented with quite a list to choose from.
I only really subscribe to one business blog—Seth Godin’s https://seths.blog/. Its not that I am against blogs, but I get too much screen time during the course of the business day. But Seth is totally worth it. Short and thought provoking.
While not a business blog, I try never to miss Brain Pickings by Maria Popova https://www.brainpickings.org/. Subtitled ‘An Inventory Of The Meaning of Life’ it never fails to deliver perspective.
Books / Ebooks. I know what you are thinking, dry business text books. Nope. The very best business books don't tell you ‘what’ to do but rather they make you think.
Here are some of the books that I am currently rereading preparing for the day I can return to my business:
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
High Performance Habit: How Extraordinary People Become That Way by Brendon Burchard
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry I Porras
Customer Satisfaction Is Worthless, Customer Loyalty Is Priceless: How to Make Customers Love You, Keep Them Coming Back and Tell Everyone They Know by Jeffery Gitomer
The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business by Clayton M. Christensen
The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma
The Purple Cow by Seth Godin
The great thing about returning to books that you have read before it that you can open them to any page and let them speak to you and inspire you.
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